Core i7-9700K Build

Some facts on the CPU: it is currently #67 on PassMark [17,329] cpubenchmark.net. It was launched 2018 October. It used 14mm architecture and does not have hyperthreading. Since the “i7-9700”, i.e. non-K, does not exist (and may never exist) this overclock-capable CPU was the choice, and it will never see overclocking. This also meant that the first time in 20+ years, a separate cooler was needed. Gone are the days of buying top-50 CPUs. The #2 i9-9940X comes in with a 28,121 score. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper and Xeon E5 make up the bulk of the CPUs higher on the list.

The video card was a Micro Center refurbished item, and kicked off this entire build. GPU prices and RAM prices have “kind of” recovered at this point – so the system finally got built, after a 10 month delay. The price was $380, plus a $50 2-year protection plan. Currently, new GTX 1080 Founders Edition sells for $620 from 3rd party (“Quick-Ship”), and a GTX 1080 MSI sells for $575 fulfilled by Amazon. Neither Amazon nor Newegg are directly selling 1080s now. The 1080s have been available for ~3 years, the RTX2070s for ~2 months. 1080s sell for $500, 2070s sell for $510, 2080s sell for $750. One benchmark shows the 2080 at #6, the 2070 at #8 , and the 1080 at #12. CUDA cores: 1080=2560, 2070=2304, 2080=2944.

The “old style” Windows Experience Index, with its maximum of 7.9, is not available in Windows 10. The “winstat” application reported a systemscore=9.2, memoryscore=9.3, cpuscore=9.3, videoencodescore=9.9, diskscore=9.2.

To honor the fastest/most expensive video card in the house, a new monitor was purchased. The Dell 1600×1200 Ultrasharp monitors needed a bit of an upgrade. The new Dell 27″ G-Sync cost a bit more money (it looks like about $100 more) because of the G-Sync. It has a 1ms response time, and 170 degree horizontal viewing, with a resolution of 2560×1440. The first purchase from Micro Center had to be returned after 18 days, because 25 thin horizontal white stripes appeared on the right-hand side, from the top to almost the bottom. The second purchase from Best Buy included a 4-year Geek Squad product replacement plan.